Nila picked up Drida’s legs and Misha hefted her shoulders, the wound leaking more blood as Drida’s head flopped back. They crab-walked over the flat area to the lip of the cliff. Drida was dead. Roshni was dead. Sharks had just devoured Ashewar, and a sea monster had gobbled up Ithsar. Misha shook her head. Ashewar had been bad enough as a leader, but Izoldia would be worse—way worse.
When Misha was a littling, her father and brothers had died at the hands of these Robandi assassins, but one of their killers had taken mercy on her and adopted her into the clan. Without a choice or a say in the matter, she’d been raised to fight among these violent women. It had been her only chance of survival. She’d never dared disobey.
And the harsh lines that carved Izoldia’s face and the hate that glittered in her dark eyes, had Misha obeying now, too.
They tossed Drida’s body to the sharks. Misha spun away before it touched the raging ocean, keeping her face impassive.
Nila bounded to her side, sand streaming from every footfall as they half-slipped down the dunes to their camels. But as they mounted, Nila slid her a sidelong glance, raised an eyebrow, and gave her a jaunty grin.
With a jolt, Misha realized Nila’s ebony eyes were bright with unshed tears.
Sea Monster
The sea monster’s fangs pressed through Ithsar’s tattered sodden robes, against her torso. She and Thika were dragged down, down, her heart hammering and lungs threatening to explode. She hadn’t even caught a proper breath. They’d only last heartbeats before they drowned. Not that it would matter. This ravenous beast was about to eat them. She clamped her hand over Thika’s nose, squeezing his nostrils and mouth shut, but the lizard lashed his tail against her arm and squirmed.
Gods, Ithsar’s lungs burned. Dark spots danced before her eyes. Her chest ached as they dived deeper.
Thika fought and thrashed. He bucked out of her grip, hooked his tail back around her shoulder, and opened his mouth. No, despite all she’d done, her best friend would die. Ithsar gasped, drawing in breath—
Air filled her lungs—not water.
Another breath. More air.
Ithsar drew in great gulps, easing the pressure on her chest. She was breathing—still alive. A shimmering silver bubble filled with glorious air surrounded her and Thika. Thika nestled against her face. Thank the dracha gods, he was all right. Thank the sea gods, too, that they both were. For now.
The sea monster opened its fangs and released her. Ithsar floated, suspended in the water before the monster’s golden gaze. Its eyes glowed like a lantern in an oasis welcoming home a weary traveler. Silver sathir danced around the creature. A strange surge of warmth bubbled in Ithsar’s chest and belly.
A current tugged Ithsar away from the beast. Its forelegs snaked out and it cradled her in its talons. “You are precious, noble and strong, fated for great things,” a warm voice hummed in Ithsar’s mind. “I am Saritha, renamed after you, Ithsar.”
This monster was talking to her? She’d heard of the naming convention in Dragons’ Realm, where dragon or riders took upon a syllable of each other’s names upon imprinting, but surely these sea monsters—
“Sea monster? I’m not a monster. I’m a dragon, a sea dragon.”
“You’re not going to eat me? But I’ve seen Ashewar feed other traitorous assassins to your kind.”
“True, we have killed some orange-robed women in the past, but only because their sathir had turned rotten, hatred eating like a dark canker through them. But your sathir is pure. You proved it by trying to save our cousin.”
Wonder wove through Ithsar. Like the oasis lake’s soothing kiss on the hottest day. Reminding her of how she’d felt as a littling, sitting on her father’s lap listening to his stories, wrapped in his warmth. Awe filled her and, for the first time, Ithsar really looked at this wondrous creature, at her head and body coated in green scales that gleamed silver in shafts of sunlight cutting through the sapphire ocean. Saritha’s sathir danced around Ithsar and Thika. Now she recognized the source of the beautiful silver bubble: it was Saritha’s shimmering sathir. “You didn’t want to eat me. You were saving me from those sharks.”
And from a life with cutthroat assassins.
“Just as you saved little Thika, my distant cousin from the desert sands.”
The skin along Thika’s sides twitched and a groove appeared. Tiny buds sprouted from his body and unfurled into wings. Thika lunged, swimming around in glee, fluttering his new wings like fins. Her lizard looked like a tiny orange sea dragon.
“Land lizards are the ancient ancestors of our kind,” Saritha said. “Some of them have the gift of transformation.”
Despite being underwater, that strange warmth burst from inside Ithsar’s chest and radiated through her body, from the roots of her hair to her toenails. She wanted to sing, dance, shout at the top of her voice. And as Saritha’s gossamer sathir wrapped around her, and Thika swam in happy circles, Ithsar felt as if she could propel herself into the skies, into a life full of wild possibilities.
Her life with the Robandi assassins had been a cage she’d been trapped in for too long. But she wouldn’t die like that Naobian starling. She was never going back. She’d swim to the ends of the sea with Saritha. “You’ve given me hope and freed me from my shackles. I can now be anyone I want.”
“Ithsar, you need only be yourself. You will always be enough for me.” Saritha lowered her muzzle into the silver bubble and huffed warm breath against Ithsar’s cheek. “Always.”
Ithsar’s throat caught. A tear slid down her cheek. “I’m enough?” Something was unfolding inside her, something small and sweet that had been lying dormant since Ashewar had killed her father and that camel had dragged his dead body into the desert. “Thank you.”
Someone understood her—Saritha understood. Sathir swirled around her in a silvery dance, wrapping her in a warm cocoon and cradling her.
“Yes, I do understand.”
She reached out a tentative hand and scratched the sea dragon’s nose. This was no monster, just a beautiful giant creature who was now her friend.
“Yes, Ithsar, you are now my rider.”
Rider? “So, I should ride you, like I’d ride a camel?”
Saritha snorted, shooting a stream of water from her nostrils. “Not quite like a camel. Climb on my back.”
§
Saritha swam through waving fronds of green weed, Ithsar on her back with Thika perched upon her shoulder. The fronds brushed against Ithsar’s legs, tickling, and she laughed as a tiny yellow-and-turquoise-striped fish darted away into the towering green forest around them. They broke out of the weed and swam along a coral reef. Growths of purple-and-orange-striped mushrooms clung to rocks. Enormous clusters of flat yellow plates formed towers that rose above them. Pink coral formations waved tiny tentacles with white stars on the ends, and red puffy balls drifted along the pale sand of the ocean floor, like tumbleweeds. Orange and tan starfish darted among small trees of pink, yellow, and vibrant turquoise, and turtles swam past Saritha, their mottled shells blending with their surroundings. And the fish—Ithsar had never seen such a variety—banded, spotted, spiky, and sleek, with more colors than the rainbow.
“At home, everything is so… orange.”
Saritha’s foot disturbed a red tree with undulating fronds, and yellow-and-silver-striped fish burst from its foliage, shooting away. A diamond-shaped ray floated past, its mantle flowing in the current and tail streaming out behind it.
“Avoid those barbed tails—they’re poisonous,” Saritha rumbled.
As Saritha approached, a school of purple-banded yellow fish with enormous bellies and bulging eyes fled into a clump of yellow and blue coral.
Ithsar gaped. And gaped. This was a whole world she’d never suspected existed. She glanced up to the pale-gray underbelly of an enormous sea creature, nearly as large as Saritha. Mournful keening filled her ears.
“What’s that?”
The dragon chuckled in her mind, a com
forting rumble. “A whale. They’re peaceful, our friends. Although sometimes their songs do get tedious.”
The whale’s song floated through Ithsar, filling cavities inside her that she hadn’t known were empty. Sadness, happiness, pain, and joy flitted inside her. Tears trailed down her cheeks as she remembered her father’s laugh, his warm dark eyes, losing him, loving Thika, Roshni’s bright blue eyes wide with fear as she’d tumbled from the cliff.
“Who pushed your friend into the ocean?” Saritha asked.
“My mother, Ashewar, who hated me for the crime of being myself.” Ithsar saw Ashewar’s screaming face as sharks snapped up her body. Her throat tightened and she thrust her hands to her aching chest, trying to staunch the pain. A splintering sob broke from her. “She destroyed everything I loved, and wanted to destroy me.”
“I’m sad that your mother is dead, but she deserved to die,” Saritha said. “However, crying will only use your air supply faster. Believe me, we don’t want you to run out of air down here.”
Her dragon’s sweet voice soothed Ithsar. Ashewar was gone. She and Thika had a new life.
Dolphins swam overhead, chittering. Thika darted off, following them. Saritha trumpeted, and the lizard whirled, his tiny wings fluttering, and zipped back to Ithsar’s shoulder.
They dived under a coral archway festooned with conical pink spires. Anemones the size of her torso wafted tentacles in the water. One snaked out its tendrils and plucked up a silver fish, forcing it inside its cavernous mouth. The tentacles shrunk, pulling in on themselves and closing over the fish until the anemone was a small dark ball, no larger than Ithsar’s head.
“I wouldn’t want to get caught by one of those.”
“Indeed.”
On the other side of the archway was a forest of waving yellow weeds that towered above them. Saritha dived and the plants parted to let them through.
Another sea dragon appeared out of the undulating plants. Then another, and another. Through the yellow fronds, Ithsar spied hundreds of sea dragons in a variety of greens and blues as vast as the ocean’s moods, all radiating silver sathir.
As Saritha burst out of the forest, the scaly long-bodied dragons formed a ring around them. Sharp talons sprang from their feet, and their tails lashed the water. Their snarls rippled through the water, making Ithsar’s head pound.
Queen Aquaria
The sea dragons’ snarls rippled through the water. Then turned into roars that crashed through Ithsar’s head. The water quaked. Fish darted into hidey-holes. Thika’s claws tightened on her shoulder.
Fear rattled Ithsar’s bones, making her tremble. “Why are they so angry?”
“They say that women with orange robes are murderers, destroying the life energy of living beings. They see your robes and fear you have come to harm us. I’ve told them you’re my new rider, but they’re distrustful because it’s been so long since any of us had riders.”
Thundering roars crashed into Ithsar, ricocheting through the water around her and lashing her like a storm.
“They’re insisting I take you to my queen.”
“Your queen?”
“Yes, my queen. You didn’t think we were a lawless bunch, did you?” Saritha chuckled, her rumbling belly tickling Ithsar’s legs, but the bared fangs and slitted eyes of the dragons around them weren’t so convincing.
“Am I in danger?”
“Is anyone ever out of danger? You leaped into the jaws of the ocean and found me. Now, prepare to meet Queen Aquaria.”
Saritha’s reassurance did little to calm Ithsar’s racing heart. They dived between two coral spires, the other sea dragons trailing them. They speared down until the water was darker, the fish drab, and the coral brown, then leveled out and swam toward a mountainous rock bigger than the assassins’ oasis. Saritha entered a gaping tunnel in the rock, and the sea dragons followed them into pitch black. Thika’s tail twined tightly around Ithsar’s neck and he nestled into her face as they angled down into the black. Cool currents streamed past Ithsar’s legs. Pressure built in her ears, and her lizard squirmed—no doubt, feeling it too.
Glimmers of distant light appeared, growing larger.
Strange fish with vicious jagged teeth and light-bearing stalks protruding from their heads surrounded the sea dragons, illuminating the darkness, and led them through the base of the rock until the tunnel angled upward toward the light.
Saritha kicked strongly and shot up. “I’ll open my mind so you can hear.”
Ithsar was about to ask exactly what she’d hear when they burst out of the tunnel onto a broad shelf of pale sand.
Shafts of sunlight spilled through the water like the pillars in the assassins’ throne room, striking a majestic dragon seated on a coral-festooned rock, lighting her green scales with a silver shimmer. The dragon angled her head. “Be seated, my daughter. Be seated, my loyal subjects.”
“Daughter? Does that make you a princess?”
The barest murmur of assent rippled through Ithsar’s mind followed by a whisper, “Keep your thoughts still. Everyone can hear you.”
A titter from one of the smallest dragons ran through Ithsar’s head, but the queen silenced the dragon with a glare. The water undulated as the sea dragons arrayed themselves on the sand in front of their queen.
The queen’s voice thundered through Saritha and Ithsar’s minds. “My daughter, what have you done? Why have you brought this creature with you?”
Ithsar’s hand shot up to cover Thika with her hand. Until the queen’s gaze leveled at her. No, the queen did not mean Thika. She meant Ithsar.
“Why did you bring this vile beast to our innermost sanctuary?” Venom laced the queen’s thoughts. “These orange-robed murderers are the vermin of the desert sands. For years they’ve left a trail of carnage in their wake.”
“Their ruler is dead,” Saritha replied. “And this is her daughter.”
The queen’s eyes glinted with feral menace. “Ah, so you brought her as a sacrifice to appease the gods. Well done.”
“No, we’ve imprinted. She’s my rider.” Saritha straightened.
Queen Aquaria’s head snaked down from her perch. Eyes narrowed, she glared at them. Ithsar’s legs trembled, but she held her head high, meeting the queen’s blazing gaze. Queen Aquaria’s derisive snort wound through Ithsar’s mind. “Rider?” The queen leaped from her coral throne, the scratch of her talons amplified by the water, skittering through Ithsar’s bones. She landed, her mighty talons raking the sand and stirring up a cloud of dust that obscured Ithsar’s vision.
Ithsar’s traitorous pulse raced at her throat, and despite the shimmering bubble around her, her chest grew tight.
The eddying sand settled and the waters cleared to reveal the queen’s giant maw outside Ithsar’s bubble of sathir. A long tongue darted from her jaws. “Let me taste you.”
Saritha had tricked her to gain her trust and bring her as a sacrifice to the queen. Swallowing hard, Ithsar knew her time was up. “Take care of Thika,” she begged Saritha. Her only regret was not helping Ezaara in battle against those dark dragons, but she would not quake. She would not fear. She had already faced death twice today. And she had lived to see wonders that even her father and Ashewar had not seen. It was enough.
She was enough.
“Of course you’re enough,” Saritha harrumphed. “I told you so already. Now stretch your hand out of the bubble so my queen can taste you.”
Ithsar gulped. Her fingers tingled as they brushed through the silver bubble and plunged into cool water, but the bubble stayed intact. She sucked in a deep breath, relieved she wouldn’t drown.
The queen licked her palm and gazed at her quizzically. “I do not sense death upon your fingers, yet you wear orange robes. Please explain.” Queen Aquaria nuzzled her hand.
Oh gods, the queen had wanted to scent her, not eat her. She felt like such a fool. As the queen touched her hand, her life flashed before her: the years of taunting and jeering; Izoldia burning and cut
ting her; her mother’s hatred; her father’s brutal death; Ashewar throwing Roshni to the sharks; and finally, Ithsar fighting Ashewar and them both tumbling into the sea.
Her memories swept on, revealing the vision she’d seen.
Above pristine snow-tipped mountains and carpets of lush forest, dark-winged beasts blasted dragons from the sky, beams from their eyes slicing into the dragons’ flesh. The foul creatures’ screams ricocheted through Ithsar’s mind. Amid plumes of flame, Ezaara dived on a dragon with scales that flickered with all the colors from a prism-seer, firing arrows. But there were too many beasts. Ezaara and her troops were nearly overwhelmed.
Then Ithsar arrived, riding a beautiful green dragon whose scales flashed silver—Saritha.
She inhaled a sharp breath. The prophecy was already coming to pass.
They swooped into battle, trails of sea dragons bearing Robandi riders behind them, followed by Naobian green guards. Their arrows found their marks. The sea dragons killed foul beasts, shredding their wings and breathing fire. Ezaara and her warriors rallied, but the battle was not over.
“So you see visions, too?” The queen inclined her head, not breaking contact with Ithsar’s hand.
A vision swept through Ithsar, and she knew it was the queen’s. Sea dragons, wings dripping with water, rose from the sea with orange-robed women on their backs.
“I fought this vision for years, knowing these women were killers, but after meeting you, I relent.” Queen Aquaria’s eyes were steady, softer. “You are heralding in a new age where sea dragons will take to the skies with riders again, to protect the freedom of my far distant cousin, Zaarusha, Queen of Dragons’ Realm. If we fail, the entire realm will become a barren wasteland.”
Riders of Fire Complete Series Box Set books 1-6: YA Epic Fantasy Dragon Rider Adventures Page 162
